DeAndre Jordan: ‘I Feel Like People are Intentionally Trying to Hurt [Blake Griffin]’

There’s been a lot of talk about Blake Griffin the past few weeks—many wonder if he’s being overly sensitive to fouls, or if players are trying to go after him too hard, or if it’s some kind of combination of the two. Pretty obvious which side of the line DeAndre Jordan stands on, as he took to the media to defend his teammate by saying opponents may be intentionally attempting to injure Griffin. Via ESPNLosAngeles: “The Los Angeles Clippers are tired of seeing Blake Griffin take hard fouls and have vowed to protect their All-Star forward if it continues. ‘I feel like people are intentionally trying to hurt him,’ Clippers center DeAndre Jordan said. ‘It’ll all come back around.’ Late in the fourth quarter of the Clippers’ loss to the Phoenix Suns on Thursday, Suns center Robin Lopez was ejected for a flagrant foul on Griffin. On Sunday, Griffin will see New Orleans Hornets centerJason Smith on the court for the first time since Smith was ejected and suspended two games for a flagrant foul on Griffin in the fourth quarter of their game last month. The criticism of Griffin and his teammates in the past is they haven’t done enough to retaliate after those hard fouls. ‘If Blake gets fouled, I can’t go punch someone in the nose,’ Jordan said. ‘We can’t do that but throughout the course of a game, other fouls happen to other players on the opposite team and if they happen to be hard fouls, they happen to be hard fouls. We’re going to protect our teammates; it doesn’t matter who it is.'”